This is the thing that MoveOn.org is currently circulating. I think it's pretty spot on. Take a look at it; if you agree, there's a link at the bottom to "sign" it - if they get 100,000 "signatures", they'll run it as a full page ad in the New York Times. They're a little fuzzy on how they're going to enforce the contract, but I presume it will be ( Read more... )

  - a gathering of friends ( Read more... )

 At the end of last semester, I asked my students what could have been done to make the class discussions work better. The two overwhelming responses were a) drop the passage from Swallow Barn, which no one liked and b) figure out someway for the whole class to be invested in the process of preparing readings for discussion. The best suggestion I ( Read more... )

 My big birthday present is a pair of new hats - a felt fedora which, despite the fact that I ordered Pecan is exactly the same colour as the brown hat I already have (which means I probably ordered Pecan last time too, actually) and a very exciting straw hat. The straw hat is actually made of palm leaves from Guatemala, and is made in Texas ( Read more... )

 So, today I am exactly 29 years younger than Don Henley. 

 Happy 4th of July, a little late. I hope you all celebrated appropriately, by consuming too much of at least one thing, and watching folks blow shit up, ideally with a long drive in a string of traffic either before or after the festivities, or both ( Read more... )

 Happy Canada Day, everyone! Enjoy the day responsibly, and then watch some municipal fireworks ( Read more... )

 I'm assuming that when I receive an e-mail from battle.net addressed to dear zhang, that it's not really from battle.net. Especially when it asks me to confirm my e-mail with battle.net when I have never set up an account there, because why would I? Anyone else seeing things similar? 

 Some time ago - a little more than a year, I think? - Lora and I signed up for a thing which sends you a gnomic message from "the Universe" on weekdays. It's usually pretty generic uplifting affirming stuff, but sometimes, in the way that things do (because we are a pattern recognizing people) the message seems spot on, or even prescient.

On ( Read more... )

 I have put in my request for microfilm, and now I must wait. However, the Library of Congress has lovely lovely wifi; yum!